


If I Knew Then...

by Broadway_trashdump



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Beetlejuice - Freeform, Beetlejuice The Musical, Beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, Death, Sad, slow start
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 19:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21124115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broadway_trashdump/pseuds/Broadway_trashdump
Summary: This seems so un-detailed but this is a very sad, very Corpse Bride inspired origin story to how Beetlejuice became, well, Beetlejuice.





	If I Knew Then...

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slow start but just for the sake of understanding Lawerence=beetlejuice 
> 
> Also I typed this on my phone bc I had to get the idea out so there’s a lot of mistakes

Lawerence was always an odd boy, a little on the chubby side and more an outcast than anything. He collected bugs and played in dirt after all, while all the other boys chose to chase girls in tag or play stickball in the streets. The year was 1925 and Lawerence’s family was no where near rich, dirt poor would be a better way to put it. Lawerence’s clothes were usually sewn together from pieces of his many siblings hand-me-downs. Juno, his mother, had 15 children, Lawerence being the absolute middle child, with 7 older siblings and 7 younger siblings. Maybe it was from watching his mother torment him, his older siblings began, and then his younger siblings being influenced by the older siblings began the torment as well. Ripping his clothes, taking his books, hiding his blankets at night. It was an all around terrible time in the Betelgeuse household. 

We won’t focus on this too much now— Lawrence at the moment is on the ground, digging through the dirt as his classmates play tag across the schoolyard. It’s right around fall, so the roundworms should be popping up soon. Lawrence never bothered anyone, just wished to have a friend in the world.. but the world is never that nice.   
“Hey, Juice Head!” Someone shouts moments before dirt is kicked in Lawrence’s face. His eyes burn as he begins to dry and rub the dirt away. Jesse Weber stands in front of Lawrence, towering over him. “What are you doing, stupid? Don’t you want to play with actual people instead of bugs all day!” Jesse shouts, towering over Lawrence who still was kneeling in the dirt. He knew the best thing to do was keep his mouth shut and accept the beating he was about to get, but snarky ran through Lawrence’s blood! He had to shoot a zinger to Jesse then book it as quick as possible to the hole in the fence... here goes nothing... 

“Well Jesse, I prefer the bugs because they have a better personality than you... not to mention their breath doesn’t smell half as bad as yours!” 

Instantly, the chase was on. Lawerence was running to the fence as fast as his little legs could carry him, his heart racing as he heard Jesse and the other older kids feet pounding the grass below them. He knew if he could make it to the trees beyond the fence they’d never find him, he knew the area too well and they’d be too scared to follow. That of course didn’t account for the uprooted tree branch sticking out of the ground. Instantly Lawrence felt blow after blow hitting him, his face, his nose, his chest. Kicks to his stomach, his back. Finally the teacher began to call the children back into class. Lawrence couldn’t move. He wouldn’t move. As every student slowly made their way inside the didn’t even bother to glance his way. Once again, Lawerence was invisible... just as he always was. 

But Lawrence had one place of solace, a hidden gem miles from his home and school. After a while of just laying on the cool sand of the playground, he found the energy to get up. He slipped through the hole of the fence and began his journey. He didn’t usually mind the walk, it gave him time to clear all the negative thoughts that shrouded him; thoughts from the bullies at school, where the shove him and call him terrible names, and thoughts from home, where he never felt loved or nurtured. Today though was different. There wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t hurt. It felt like even the ends of his hair hurt, a nest of thick black hair tossled from the attack. But alas, his gem, deep in the old forest, was a lone weeping willow tree. The most beautiful tree that Lawrence had ever seen, it was tall and wide, it’s branches dipping low to the ground, completely covering the trunk from the outside. This tree felt more like Lawrence’s home than his real home ever has. As he pulls back the branches to dip in, he’s met with the little home he’s made himself— a small throw pillow that he found being thrown away, and a soft, black and white stripe blanket his mother made him when he was just a baby. The blanket was scraps of fabric from making clothes for the other children in the summer, but it didn’t matter, it reminded Lawerence of the happiness he used to hold as a child— at 12 years old that’s one of his mothers favorite things to torment him with, that he’s no longer a child but still mooches around her house doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes she gets so mad she’ll get the paddle, but Lawrence has learned to run before that happens now. 

Lawrence plopped himself on the cold hard ground and laid his head into the pillow, wrapping himself in the black and white blanket as much as he could and let the branches of the weeping willow caress him as they blew in the wind. This was his only home he loved.


End file.
